


The Prince and the Pea

by zarabithia



Category: Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-25
Updated: 2007-12-25
Packaged: 2018-01-25 03:02:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1628138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zarabithia/pseuds/zarabithia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A retelling of The Princess and the Pea.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Prince and the Pea

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Sister Coyote

 

 

There came many benefits and perks to being a wealthy, beautiful princess who would one day inherit her father's vast kingdom and all its riches. As an only child, Claire might easily have been spoiled because of the circumstances. Yet instead, due to the love and devotion of a stubborn queen for a mother, and a fair-hearted king for a father, Claire was spared that fate.  


The worst she managed to inherit was her mother's temper, which, as far as queenly faults went, was not a bad one. In a kingdom that had previously seen reigns of head-chopping monarchs known for sending wives and concubines to their death for merely looking at another man, Claire's determination to have things done to her satisfaction was really not worth batting an eye over.  


Still, her independent streak did make finding a suitable mate with whom she wished to share the throne a difficult task. Far too many of her suitors were not equally fortunate in the matter of upbringing, and had indeed grown up to be spoiled, pampered princes wishing that their every whim be met lest they subject Claire and the entire kingdom to a princely temper tantrum.  


Of the small few that were not spoiled, the rest tended to be boorish and demanding in their ways. That selection of would be suitors were determined to take Claire as their queen only so that they might increase their kingdom and their worth, and rule over both lands as king.  


Claire's mother would not allow such a match to take place, and yet, as the years passed, she grew increasingly concerned that an ill-suited creature, either of spoiled birth or kingly privilege, would manage to slip through and gain her daughter's hand through some manner of trickery.  


The Queen beseeched the palace mage for help, and her pleas did not go unheeded.  


"Take this pea," the mage instructed. "And place it beneath a pile of twenty mattresses. Make any guest that vies for Princess Claire's hand sleep upon the very top. For most, the pea shall go unnoticed, and they shall sleep soundly. Those of boorish temperament, or pampered princes unaccustomed to work shall never have any disturbance in their sleep. But for the prince who is truly worthy of your daughter, one who is kind, fair, and gentle enough to view her as an equal - for him sleeping on the pea shall be as though he slept on a bed of nails."  


The Queen took the pea doubtfully, but did as she was instructed, and thus, the legend of the Prince and the Pea was born. 

 


End file.
